Education Commons^™

'Whose Goals Am I Meeting?' Policy And Practice Dilemmas In Adult Basic Education (Abe) In The Era Of Accountability, Alma Hallulli Biba

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

For the last two decades, federal legislation and Massachusetts’ state ABE policies have linked adult learners’ educational outcomes to performance systems and accountability requirements. These outcomes, represented as ‘goals’, reflect an emphasis on return-on-investment strategies and outcome-based accountability measures. Greatest emphasis is placed on that subset of adult learners’ goals that are easily measured, attainable, and that are associated with public outcomes. This dissertation, in contrast, seeks to understand the goal setting process from the perspective of learners and local ABE stakeholders. Using a novel, mixed-method approach, this dissertation presents ABE learners’ goal setting as a decision problem in order …

Social Media For Senior Citizens: An Introductory Course, Cheryl Raistrick

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

The Woburn Council on Aging is a municipal, volunteer board appointed by the Mayor of Woburn. The Woburn COA operates the Woburn COA Senior Center as a resource for the community's senior citizen population. The Senior Center provides information, referrals, information, outreach, advocacy, transportation, health screening, nutrition, education, peer support, recreation, volunteer development and intergenerational programming for members of the community. Educational programs on the use of technology are offered monthly at the Woburn COA Senior Center though members have expressed interest in learning more about social media applications and how they can be used to communicate with family and …

Report On Model Accreditation Standards For Higher Education Programs For Students With Intellectual Disability: A Path To Education, Employment, And Community Living, National Coordinating Center Accreditation Workgroup

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) enacted in 2008 created exciting opportunities for students with intellectual disability (ID) to access federal financial aid, and authorized both new model demonstration programs and a National Coordinating Center (NCC). The NCC, administered by Think College at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston, is charged with providing technical assistance, coordination, and evaluation of model demonstration programs. The NCC is also required by HEOA to convene a Workgroup to develop and recommend model criteria, standards, and components of higher education programs for students with intellectual disability. The National Coordinating Center …

The Tobacco Free College Campus: An Assessment Of Policy Implementation And Enforcement At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Annie Mcdougall

Honors College Theses

To date, one of the greatest successes in the field of public health has been the nationwide awareness campaign about the negative health effects of smoking cigarettes and using tobacco. Smoking and tobacco use have been associated with a number of health problems including the increased risk of cancers and cardiovascular diseases (Office on Smoking and Health 446). The success of the anti-smoking initiative can be attributed to a number of public outreach methods including TV advertisement bans on cigarettes, an increase on taxes on cigarettes, the placement of the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarette packaging and smoking and tobacco …

The Role Of The Press In Framing The Bilingual Education Debate: Ten Years After Sheltered Immersion In Massachusetts, Fern L. Johnson, Marlene G. Fine

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 2002 Massachusetts voters passed a voter initiative that changed the way children who are not fluent in English are taught. The initiative overturned the state’s requirement for “transitional bilingual education,” through which children are gradually transitioned, usually over a three-year period, from instruction in their native language to instruction entirely in English. Transitional bilingual education was replaced with “sheltered English immersion,” which places children with little or no English-language fluency in classes where almost all instruction is in English, with the expectation that they will move to regular English-only classrooms after one year.

We used frame analysis to examine …

Equitable Compensation: Quantifying The Salary Differences Of Comparison Communities, Margaret A. Murray

New England Journal of Public Policy

Teacher salary scales from a target district are compared with those from six groups of comparable districts to provide a quantitative basis from which to assess self-serving bias in the selection of comparison districts. Comparison districts are used to gauge salary equity during contract negotiations. Salary data were extracted for three salary columns (bachelor’s, master’s, and master’s plus 30 credits) from the 2014–15 Massachusetts teacher contracts from forty-eight districts. Comparison district groups were formed using six methods: three single-criterion and three multiple-criteria. Implications for selecting methods are also discussed.

Assessment Of Impacts Of The Biomedical Careers Program – Just-A-Start Corporation Of Cambridge, Ma, Brandynn Holgate, Françoise Carré, Michael Mccormack, Wendel Mirbel

Center for Social Policy Publications

In 2015, Just-a-Start Corporation (JAS) of Cambridge, MA asked the UMass Boston Center for Social Policy to conduct an assessment of the impacts of the Biomedical Careers Program on the region and state, examining individual impacts for graduates as well as the economic contributions of program graduates to the biomedical industry.

The Biomedical Careers Program (hereafter “BioMed”) is described by JAS as an eight month program designed to enable local residents to complete “a Certificate in Biomedical Sciences to prepare them for entry level jobs at local biotechnology companies, universities, research institutions, clinical laboratories and hospitals. The program includes a …

Data Note: Comparing Vr Outcomes For Individuals With And Without Intellectual Disabilities Who Receive Postsecondary Education Services, John Shepard, Frank A. Smith, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This Data Note explores the provision of postsecondary education services to vocational rehabilitation customers with and without intellectual disabilities who exited the VR system in FY2014.